A Paradoxical Subject

Davis addresses his recent book, Mathematics and Common Sense, "to all who are curious about the nature of mathematics and its role in society," adding that he aims to convey "an appreciation of the flights of human imagination that both join and transcend common sense and that have created the mathematical world we live in." Contemplating distance, we come quickly to irrational numbers (note the name!) and, over time, to the mind-bending pursuits and puzzles of modern geometry and topology.